Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs written question – answered at on 16 October 2007.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received on human rights violations in Russia; what assessment he has made of those reports; and if he will make a statement.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office closely monitors the human rights situation in Russia and remains concerned about the ongoing reports of human rights violations, which we receive from our embassy in Moscow, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Russia media sources.
Our main concern is that these reports indicate a further shrinking of the democratic space in Russia, primarily through the recent NGO and anti-extremist laws and the restrictions imposed on opposition parties. There are concerns that this shrinking could worsen in the lead up to the parliamentary elections in December and the 2008 presidential elections. Other human rights concerns include: the restrictions on media freedom and increased risk to journalists safety; the rise in attacks on ethnic, racial and religious minorities; the increasing use of forced psychiatric treatment and detention; and the ongoing reports of extra-judicial killings, torture, abduction and arbitrary detention in Chechnya and elsewhere in the North Caucasus.
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